Tag Archives: C3

BPMC Bring Your Car Evening – Redhill Village Hall

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A couple of weeks ago the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club (BPMC) and a few friends met at Redhill Village Hall for a BBQ and autosolo on their football/soccer pitch.

Rolls Royce Phantom II, BPMC, Redhill Village Hall

Oldest of the vehicles present was this magnificent 1929 Rasberry and Cream Rolls Royce Phantom II which I believe served as a funeral directors vehicle before being restyled recently as a 2 seat coupé.

Sunbeam Tiger, BPMC, Redhill Village Hall

Parked up right next to me was this purposeful 1965 Sunbeam Tiger.

Chevrolet Corvette C3s, BPMC, Redhill Village Hall

A pair of ’80 & ’81 late C3 Chevrolet Corvette’s came along as did a single C6.

TVR Tuscan, BPMC, Redhill Village Hall

TVR kept making spartan lean machines right until the end of 2007, above a 2001 Tuscan with orifices in the wings that look like they should conceal weapons of mass destruction instead of headlights and indicators.

Factory Five 65 Coupé, BPMC, Redhill Village Hall

BPMC Social Secretary Nick Woods looks like he has just won the lottery behind the wheel of a friends ’08 Factory Five 65 Coupé, the bad news was the autosolo in which he was about to compete mandated drivers wear a black sack over their heads and were to be guided by their sighted passengers. Nick was navigated round the autosolo bollards by yours truely it took us nearly 30 seconds just to get off the start line such was the noise of the Roush V8 in front of us.

Toyota Hilux, BPMC, Redhill Village Hall

Though the Factory Five was wholly unsuited to the purpose of driving round the bollards, the event was won by a slightly smaller and considerably less powerful Saab, the most unsuited vehicle but most entertaining vehicle in the event was the ’95 Toyota Hilux Monster truck with 36 inch wide tyres driven by Scott Grey and his partner.

It turns out that Redhill Village Hall has Classic Gatherings most months on the third Thurday of the month, the next is on July 17th see their Classic Car Evening Gatherings page on facebook for further details.

Thanks for joining me on this “BPMC Bring Your Car Evening” edition of “Gettin a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be revisiting a Maserati I recently wrote about. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Greenwoods Last Customer C3 – Chevrolet Corvette C3 Greenwood #12

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The last in this series of Americana Thursday blogs celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Chevrolet Corvettes features the last of the 12 customer Corvette racer built by John Greenwood as seen in these photo’s taken by Geoffrey Horton at the recent Rolex Reunion meeting run at Mazda Raceway, Laguna Seca.

Chevrolet Corvette C3, Rolex Reunion, Mazda Raceway, Laguna Seca

Chassis #12 appears to have been built for Albert DeLeo from a Greenwood stock 1976 chassis for the 1982 season when Albert ran the car just once in the Lime Rock 1 hour Coca Cola 400 race for which he qualified 18th and was classified as a non runner in 24th place.

Chevrolet Corvette C3, Rolex Reunion, Mazda Raceway, Laguna Seca

Changes in the IMSA GTO regulations which favoured tube frame chassis over full frame cars meant the car was never raced again in period. The all aluminium 7.8 litre / 478 cui motor was fitted with Kinsler fuel injection and produced around 730 hp with a red line at 6,400 ear busting rpm.

Chevrolet Corvette C3, Rolex Reunion, Mazda Raceway, Laguna Seca

The car known as a wide body has coil over rear suspension to help transmit the fearsome horsepower through the 15″ wide rear tyres to the road. The front wheels are 12″ wide 15″ diameter made as are the rears by Jongbloed.

Chevrolet Corvette C3, Rolex Reunion, Mazda Raceway, Laguna Seca

Lance Smith found the pristine car at Albert’s in 1989 and since then it has undergone minor restoration.

Chevrolet Corvette C3, Rolex Reunion, Mazda Raceway, Laguna Seca

French sports, GT and former Galles IRL driver Didier André car bought chassis #12 through Bonhams last year. It appears that Didier plans to bring the car up to the same specification as Greenwoods famous Spirit of ’76 #007 specification so that it can take part in historic event’s in Europe.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing today’s photograph’s.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Greenwoods Last Customer C3′ edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now.

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Spirit Of ’76 – Chevrolet Corvette Greenwood #007

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John and Burt Greenwood were the children of a WW2 fighter pilot who worked at the GM Tech Center. As a teenager John was working paper rounds so that he could build a Briggs Stratton powered kart. From there the Greenwood’s moved into street racing, preparing a car, racing it and then selling it to so that they could build up another.

Around 1968 the Greenwoods set up Auto Research Engineering to build engines and tune suspension and the following year started racing. John won back to back SCCA championships in 1970 and 1971. Over the following two years the Greenwood Corvettes had made trips to the Le Mans 24 hours where they had failed to finish having a best 16th place on the grid in ’72 to show for their efforts.

Chevrolet Corvette, Goodwood Festival of Speed

In 1976 John Greenwood was invited to return to Le Mans and this time he brought a wide bodied car to share with Bernard Darniche. Featuring a body that was developed the the aid of ‘Farther of the Corvette’ Zora Arkus-Duntov and aerodynamicist Randy Wittine that covered a 700 hp fuel injected 7 litre / 427 cui motor.

Chassis #007 had been built up for Rick Mancuso a racer from Illinois who entered the car in the ’76 Sebring 12 hours but crashed it in practice so that it did not start, #007 is not to be confused with John Greenwoods “Spirit of Sebring ’76” which started from pole in the same race, but retired after 36 laps with clutch failure.

Chevrolet Corvette, Goodwood Festival of Speed

At his third attempt John’s Corvette, which was timed at over 215 mph on Mulsanne straight, qualified 9th behind a the turbocharged BMW CSl driven by Brian Redman and Peter Gregg and was one of just 12 cars to get below 4 mins in qualifying beating his own previous best time by a clear 20 seconds.

Unfortunately it was not third time lucky in the race as the car was retired with a split fuel cell during the early hours bringing to an end John’s hugely popular presence at the La Sarthe circuit.

Thanks for joining me on this “Spirit of ’76” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for “Ferrari Friday”. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Once Round The Clock – Cunningham C4-R C3 #5238 Continuatuation

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Legendary American Sportsman Briggs Swift Cunningham II was introduced to motor racing by his uncle as a teenager just after the 1914/18 war and in 1930 he started racing cars founding the Automobile Racing Club of America in 1933 which was renamed Sports Car Club Of America (SCCA) in 1944 with his college friends Miles and Samuel Collier.

By 1940 he was building specials including the Bu-Merc which featured a Buick chassis and Mercedes SSK chassis. In 1950 Cunningham took to Cadillacs one Le Petit Pataud a Series 61 Coupé the other Il Montre fitted with a special body to Le Mans where the cars finished 10th and 11th.

Cunningham C4-R, Goodwood Revival

Such was the success and popularity of the Cunningham Cadillacs that Brigg announced he would build an American car to challenge for over all victory at Le Mans in 1951. The first challenger the Cunningham C2R of which two were built managed an 18th place finish and retirement between them in 1951.

The Cunningham Continental C3 was a road car using a chassis derived from the racer with a Chrysler Hemi motor and an Italian body built by Vignale. 25 C3’s were built.

Cunningham C4-R, Goodwood Revival

In 1952 Cunningham entered 3 Chrysler Hemi powered C4R cars into the Le Mans 24 hour race one of which had a Coupé body fitted. Like Pierre Levegh driving a Talbot Lago Briggs Cunningham spent over 12 hours racing at the wheel of his #1 entry unlike Levegh at that point he handed the #1 over to his co driver William Spear and between them they a 4th place finish behind the two winning Mercedes Benz team cars and a Nash Healey.

The C4-R’s would continue to be raced until at least 1956 clocking up at least 12 overall wins the best known of which was at the 1953 Sebring 12 hours where John Fitch and Phil Walters were at the wheel of the winning car. In 1954 Bill Spear and Sherwood Johnston finished 3rd to record the models best finish at Le Mans. Surprisingly Jaguar D-type designer Malcom Slayer observed that the C4-R chassis had “no effective diagonal bracing. It therefore twists so much that the door cannot work if one rear wheel is jacked up”.

Cunningham C4-R, Goodwood Revival

Cunningham entered vehicles including Jaguars, Listers and and an OSCA among many more dominated SCCA racing for a period but never did win Le Mans. Briggs went of to win the 1958 America’s cup on his 12 metre yacht Colombia.

The car seen in these photo’s is a Continuation model, built with the co operation of the Collier Museum around the last Cunningham C3 chassis #5238 which never received it’s intended Vignale bodywork after Briggs shutdown the C3 manufacturing operation.

Cunningham C4-R, Goodwood Revival

#5238 has been built as an exact recreation of a C4-R by Jim Stokes Workshops, Waterlooville, Hampshire, UK using a many parts donated by the Collier Museum and a body built by Roach Manufacturing who used a digital scan of one of the original C4_R’s as a template. Even the wheels have been cast in magnesium using the original Cunningham wheel moulds.

Ben Shuckburgh is seen driving the car at the Goodwood revival in 2011 and 2012, it is the fifth C4-R continuation to be built four examples were built in the 1990’s by Cunningham Historic Motor Cars, owned by Larry Black & Briggs S. Cunningham III that were authorized by the Cunningham family.

Cunningham C4-R, Goodwood Revival

My thanks to Cunningham Motorsport Historian Lawrence W. Berman for the information on the build of today’s featured car.

Thanks for joining me on this “Once Around The Clock” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Low Lead 454 – Chevrolet Stingray Corvette (C3)

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Longest running of the Chevrolet Corvette incarnations was the third generation C3 built between 1968 and 1982.

Chevrolet Stingray Corvette, Goodwood Revival

The C3 Corvette took it’s styling cues from the 1965 Mako Shark II Concept Car.

Chevrolet Stingray Corvette, Goodwood Revival

A new feature of the C3 Corvette’s was the T Top removable roof panels, an idea first patented Gordon Buehrig in 1951 for his, unsuccessful, TASCO Sports Car.

Chevrolet Stingray Corvette, Goodwood Revival

The T-Top proved so successful that production of convertible Stingray Corvettes ceased in 1975 and was not revised again until 1986.

Chevrolet Stingray Corvette, Goodwood Revival

For 1971 the engine options were base L48, performance LT1 and ZR1 using the 350 cui 5.7 litre small block and the 454cui / 7.4 litre LS5 and LS6 big block options. With the introduction of low lead fuel in 1971 the LS6 454’s power was detuned from 450 hp as used on the Chevelle SS to 425 hp. I have been unabke to determine if the car in these photo’s taken at last years Goodwood Revival is one of the 188 LS6 powered cars or one of the 5097 365 LS5 powered cars built in 1971.

Chevrolet Stingray Corvette, Goodwood Revival

The absence of “Sting Ray” name plates as used on the C2 Corvettes distinguish 1968 Corvette’s, the single word “Stingray” moniker was used from 1969 until 1976.

Chevrolet Stingray Corvette, Goodwood Revival

The futuristic door entry mechanism replaced with the hitherto ubiquitous release button and door handle combining them into a single recessed unit.

Chevrolet Stingray Corvette, Goodwood Revival

The C3 is said to be the first US car to do away with the side vent window in the door, power window’s were an option for the remaining pain of glass.

Chevrolet Stingray Corvette, Goodwood Revival

Among the 1971 options were white striped tyres at $28 or white lettered tyres at $42, 6,711 and 12,499 vehicles were delivered with these options respectively.

Chevrolet Stingray Corvette, Goodwood Revival

’71 Corvette advertising concluded that “it’s underneath what counts when it comes to performance”.

Chevrolet Stingray Corvette, Goodwood Revival

Despite strikes interrupting production 9,936 Stingray Corvette Coupé’s were manufactured in 1971.

Thanks for joining me on this “Low Lead 454” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Losing Momentum – Ferrari 126C3 #066

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Entering the final two races of the 1983 World Championshp season Alain Prost driving for Renault had 51 points, René Arnoux seen here in the #28 Ferrari had 49 points and Nelson Piquet driving for Brabham had 47 points. Of the three René had all the momentum with him coming off a four race streak which included 2 wins in Germany and Holland driving chassis #066 seen here and 2nd places in Austria and Italy.

Ferrari 126 C3, European Grand Prix, Brands Hatch

At the European Grand Prix held at Brands Hatch Piquet qualified 4th, Arnoux, seen during qualifying above and below, 5th and Prost 8th. The race was won by Piquet now with 56 points, Prost came home 2nd bringing his total to 57 points while René failed to score with a 9th place finish. At the final race of the season Piquet secured his second championship with a third place finish while Prost and Arnoux both lost all momentum and recorded retirements.

Ferrari 126 C3, European Grand Prix, Brands Hatch

Ferrari easily won the constructors championship thanks largely to the woe full finishing record the 2nd drivers employed by Renault and Brabham who both scored more retirements than finishes through the course of the season while Ferrari’s nominal number 1 driver Patrick Tambay managed to win one race and secure 8 points paying finishes.

My memory of this event was that I started the week sunning myself by the Tyrrhenian Sea south of Naples in Italy and hitched hiked back to the UK via Wolfsburg in Northern Germany. I caught a train for the last part of the journey to Belgium which broke down meaning I missed my pre booked ferry and had to borrow the ferry fare from an incredibly cute girl from Nottingham. The ferry we caught was then trapped in a storm and instead of crossing the English channel it anchored off the Belgium coast until the storm blew itself out.

I made it back to the UK just in time to catch a nights rest before spending 6 hours in a 20 mile traffic jam trying to get into Brands Hatch, missing morning practice completely but just catching the last half hour of the final practice session when I took today’s photographs.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Losing Momentum

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